'Gender apartheid' - Tesco accused of sexist shopping trolleys

Tesco has become the latest company to be accused of sexism, for having trolleys featuring pictures of women and children but not men.

A woman tweeted a complaint about the images, stating they showed “everyday sexism," according to The Sun.

The safety instructions on the handles of the trolleys show three silhouettes of women and children, to show where infants should sit in the trolley.

The Manchester Evening News reported that the Twitter user asked: "Tesco, is it only women who do the food shopping and look after the kids?"

The Fathers4Justice campaign group has given its view, with founder Matt O'Connor saying: “Tesco needs to stop this gender apartheid.”

The matter has also received comment from the Rosa UK Fund for Women and Girls, an equality campaign group, whose executive director said shopping trolleys being "gendered in any way seems ridiculous."

Samantha Rennie claimed it's a "seemingly small factor" which helps reinforce "stereotypical ideas of the woman being responsible for the weekly food shop."

But Tesco has announced that it is already tackling the issue, a spokesperson commented: “Everyone’s welcome at Tesco, which is why we’ve been changing the icons on our trolleys to use a new, gender-neutral design.

"The new design is already on over 20,000 trolleys and will feature on all new trolleys in the future."